Prosecutors appeal release of ex-Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-che

Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) Prosecutors have appealed a court decision to release Ko Wen-che (柯文哲), former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) former chairman, on bail, pending his trial on corruption charges.

After a year in incommunicado detention, Ko was released Monday on bail of NT$70 million (US$2.30 million), but he is required to wear an electronic tracking device and is barred from leaving the country.

Prosecutors said they have appealed Ko's release as they have arranged to question several witnesses in October. They include Huang Ching-mao (黃景茂), former director of Taipei City's Department of Urban Development; Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊), former Taipei deputy mayor and TPP lawmaker; and Wu Shun-min (吳順民), assistant to Kuomintang (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇), prosecutors said.

A defendant should be detained until witness questioning is complete, prosecutors said in their argument for Ko's detention.

Ying was released on bail of NT$30 million last Friday in the same corruption case, and prosecutors have also filed an appeal against her release.

According to prosecutors, when Ko was in detention, he instructed others to post social media messages under his name in a bid to collude with witnesses to give false testimony and to influence public opinion.

Prosecutors said that soon after Ko was released on Monday, he violated the bail terms by contacting two witnesses in the corruption case -- his aide Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) and TPP Taipei City Councilor Chen You-cheng (陳宥丞).

After his release, Ko also claimed that another suspect in the corruption case was innocent, prosecutors said.

The suspect, Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), finance chief of Ko's 2024 election campaign, is scheduled to be questioned on Sept. 16, and Ko was trying to collude with him, prosecutors said.

The Taipei District Court granted Ko's release on Sept. 5, stipulating that he must stay at a registered address, wear an electronic monitoring device, remain in the country, and refrain from contacting other defendants or witnesses in the case.

After posting bail on Monday afternoon, Ko traveled to Hsinchu to see his mother and returned to Taipei about three hours later.

Ko had been detained incommunicado since Sept. 5, 2024 and was indicted in December that year on charges related to accepting bribes of NT$17.1 million in a property development deal during his tenure as Taipei mayor and embezzling political donations during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Prosecutors are seeking a total sentence of 28.5 years for Ko, who has maintained his innocence and argued that the charges are politically motivated.

Ten other suspects have also been indicted in the case, including Ying, Lee, former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), and Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), founder and chairman of the real estate conglomerate Core Pacific Group.